genability.com | Tariff News

Notice on SMUD Tariff R-TOD-SSR, March - July 2022

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (“SMUD”) introduced a new Solar and Storage tariff for solar customers (Rate Schedule “R-TOD-SSR”), which took effect on March 1, 2022. SMUD published documentation regarding the revised tariff structure on their website: https://www.smud.org/-/media/Documents/Rate-Information/Rates/01_SSR.ashx
genability.com | Tariff News

California Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM3)

California is updating its Net Energy Metering policies in 2022, commonly referred to as NEM3.0. Genability customers can rely on Genability providing full support for them. Ahead of the publication of the final NEM 3 tariffs and rates, Genability has publishing a set of Tariffs with the latest proposed rate structures for customers to use. Once details are available, the finalized tariffs and rates will be published for all to use. In this blog post we track updates as the policies and rate changes firm up. We recommend checking back hear from time to time to get the lastest.
genability.com | Company

Whats new with Genability

Like many companies, the start of a new year is a time when Genability’s goals and objectives are updated and plans are set in motion. Here’s a summary of what we are up to in 2021.
genability.com | Tariff News

California Residential Electricity Rate Changes - January 2020

Southern California Edison (SCE), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) all released new tariff rates on January 1, 2020 improving the economics of residential solar for all three utilities.
genability.com | Products

Solar Incentives Data

Genability Switch customers no longer need to maintain their own database of residential solar incentives. As of October 15, 2019 Genability’s Solar Incentives API has graduated from Beta to V1 and is now available under general release for Switch customers that wish to license it. We’ve also built a new user interface within Switch’s Dash web application to view this data along with your savings analyses.
genability.com | Tariff News

Review of Southern California Edison's New Post Solar Electricity Rates and its Impact on Savings

On March 1, 2019 Southern California Edison (SCE) will close its current default post-solar tariff (TOU-D-A-NEM2) and replace it with a new default post-solar tariff (TOU-D-4-9PM-NEM2). This tariff change will dramatically impact solar savings in SCE as the Time of Use (TOU) On-Peak hours move from 2-8 PM under TOU-D-A-NEM2 to 4-9 PM under TOU-D-4-9PM-NEM2. More importantly TOU-D-4-9PM-NEM2 introduces a Super Off-Peak period in the Winter from 8 AM to 4 PM, when the majority of solar production occurs.
genability.com | Products

Savings Analysis API Support for Non-bypassable Charges

Genability has just upgraded both our Savings Analysis API and our Calculate API to better support Non-Bypassable Charges (NBCs). What are NBCs you ask? Well that’s how the California utilities refer to the customer’s annual NBCs that cannot be offset by Net Energy Metering (NEM) Credits under NEM 2.0. These NBCs behave as a second minimum charge calculation that’s performed during the customer’s annual true-up.
genability.com | Tariff News

Review of California's Proposed Commercial Time of Use Electricity Tariffs

In 2019, both Pacific Gas & Electric (PGE) and Southern California Edison (SCE) will introduce new Time-of-Use (TOU) periods for commercial tariffs. Both utilities are moving highly-priced peak hours later in the day, from mid-afternoon to 4-9 PM. If you are selling solar, storage and/or energy efficiency in California, you want to be sure to calculate savings using these new tariffs. Thanks to Genability’s new Proposed Tariffs product for enterprise customers, now you can!
genability.com | Products

Proposed Tariffs included in Genability database

Our Proposed Tariffs feature allows you to use our complete set of tools to calculate the costs and savings of tariffs that are not yet published and live.
genability.com | Products

Genability Adds Support for PVWatts Version 6

We’ve added support for Version 6 of NREL’s PVWatts API, used to estimate the hourly production of a customer’s solar PV system.
genability.com | Products

Explorer Web App for Energy Professionals

Today we are pleased to announce the launch of our latest product, Genability Explorer, a web-application for Energy Professionals.
genability.com | Tariff News

Solar Incentives in Illinois, Net Metering Ends for Duke Energy South Carolina

The roller coaster for solar in the U.S. (call it a Solar Coaster?) keeps rolling this summer.  The state of Illinois has finalized the credit values for its Adjustable Block Program, which provides solar owners with an upfront payment for 15 years of estimated solar production.  Meanwhile, in South Carolina the state legislature failed to increase the net metering cap and Duke Energy has met its 2% limit. Starting on August 1, 2018 full net metering closes for Duke Energy SC customers and will be replaced by the Purchased Power Rider. First the good news for solar developers:
genability.com | Tariff News

Solar Incentives in Massachusetts

Later this year, Massachusetts will close out it’s SREC program replacing it with the new Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) incentives. While there are still a few details left to be finalized, Genability is able to model the proposed SMART incentives for our customers and has made the new incentives available via the Incentives API.
genability.com | Tariff News

Duke Energy North Carolina Solar Incentives

At 9 AM this morning (July 9, 2018), Duke Energy North Carolina started accepting incentive applications for their Solar Rebate program and Genability has made the new incentive available via our Incentives API.
genability.com | Company

Genability Open for Business for Commercial Energy Customers

We have an exciting announcement. Genability is now open for business to any and all new energy companies servicing commercial and industrial customers. Today we have lifted all restrictions that might have prevented you from working with us in the past.
genability.com | Tariff News

Hawaiian Smart Export and Customer Grid Supply Solar Programs

Starting on 2/20/2018, the three Hawaiian investor-owned utilities will offer two new programs for customers with solar: Customer Grid Supply Plus and Smart Export. Both programs offer export credits for power provided to the grid, an option that has not been available in Hawaii since the Customer Grid Supply programs closed in 2017. Genability has just made these two programs available for Hawaiian Electric Co (HECO), Hawaiian Electric Light Co (HELCO) and Maui Electric Co (MECO) for use in your solar proposals.
genability.com | Products

Estimating Energy Usage from Customer’s Bill Amount

Do you have a potential solar customer’s 12 months of bills or their annual bill amount for electricity? If so, we can now estimate energy usage from that information!
genability.com | Tariff News

New York Public Service Commission Guidelines on Presenting Solar Savings

Effective December 1, 2017, solar developers in New York are required by the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) to meet precise guidelines (PDF Download) when presenting savings estimates.  Genability has reviewed these requirements and we have made some data upgrades for New York so that our solar customers can comply with these new requirements without any change to their API integration.  First, let’s review the new savings requirement:
genability.com | Products

Run Down of Genability Developer Website Updates

A quick rundown of the latest and greatest updates on GDN, our developer website.
genability.com | Tariff News

The Methodology Behind our Monthly Residential Rates Newsletter

Every month Genability updates thousands of tariffs. These changes can be as small as a simple rate increase or as large as a whole new rate structure. For just over a year now, around the 10th of each month, we have sent out a summary of those changes in our Monthly Residential Rate newsletter to help our customers better understand and anticipate these changes.
Company

Switch, Solar and New Energy Round Up for 2017

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It’s been awhile since we last blogged a roundup of what’s going on with Switch (April 2016 to be precise). A lot has happened with Switch and the solar and new energy market more generally since then. So let’s get right to it.

Solar Proposals are Growing

Last year, Genability calculated a whopping 3 million residential solar proposals! That is 170% growth from 2015. Since the release of Switch in 2014, we have calculated 6 million, and that is just through Q1 of this year - we have been busy! This is thanks in part to adding new customers (more on that below), but we are also seeing that our existing customers are presenting more proposals. Good news for rooftop solar.

Our APIs are Getting Faster

Extra API volumes mean that it’s even more important to tune our code and infrastructure for speed. We have continued to cut our API response times. Our performance has improved by 20% since last year with an average response time of just 302 milliseconds for a Savings Analysis call!

Highlights from Customers New and Old

We expanded our customer footprint in the residential solar market. Here’s some highlights.

Dividend Dividend Finance, a solar loan company bringing together homeowners, installers and investors to enable all members of the solar value chain benefit. Their new quote tool for solar loans integrated with Switch for the best rate accuracy and the largest coverage area. “Saving money is the #1 reason homeowners choose to go solar. Providing accurate estimates of the potential savings is crucial to our business. Dividend chose Genability over another provider of tariff rate data to support our customers with the most accurate savings forecasts on the market,” said Phil Meachin, VP of Strategy and Communications for Dividend Solar.

sunova Sunnova, the residential solar company from Houston,  also upgraded to Switch with their new dealer quote tool, releasing it to all of their residential dealers and installers in 2016. This version enhanced calculated solar avoided cost calculations and utility tariff rate data collection. “Genability has been a great partner to us. They are extremely responsive to questions and tickets and are always a step ahead of us in thinking about what features and functionality we might want next”, said Chris Hayden,” of Sunnova.

In addition to growing our existing relationships with customers Sunrun, SunPower, SolarCity, NRG, Spruce and others, Genability also partners with the industry’s best quote tool providers. Residential solar quote tool providers Sighten, SolarNexus and ModSolar all utilize Switch for their utility avoided cost calculations.

A Growing Focus on Customer Engagement

Many Solar companies are now focusing on profitability and long term stability rather than the rapid “land-grab” of past years. With that we are seeing a new focus on customer engagement campaigns with an emphasis on lowering operation and maintenance costs, creating referral programs, up selling and satisfying current customers. Genability customers like Sunrun, that have integrated with the latest version of Switch in their consumer web portal can show their customers their real savings after going solar. This actual savings information is tremendously valuable for sales, referrals and support inquires, and improves engagement programs and marketing campaigns.

New Requirements from Utilities for Solar Customers

Over the past year an increasing number of utilities are either requiring solar customers to switch their tariff after interconnection or impose additional fixed charges for solar customers. A year ago, only Salt River Project in Arizona required solar customers to switch tariffs post solar, but today 2 of the 3 California investor-owned utilities do (PG&E and SDG&E), most Hawaiian utilities (HECO, HELCO and MECO) as well as the Imperial and Modesto Irrigation Districts. Solar-specific fixed charges have spread from Arizona Public Service across the country to Santee Cooper in South Carolina, New Braunfels Utility in Texas, as well as two munis in Utah (St. George and Santa Clara). Genability has been tracking these cases and adjusting our data accordingly to ensure that all the applicable charges and requirements are handled automatically by Switch.

After SunEdison : A Silver Lining

We were saddened by the news of the SunEdison bankruptcy. Genability had worked closely with their Residential and Small Commercial teams to provide savings analyses. There bankruptcy was a big loss, and something of a black eye for the solar industry. However, it is not all bad news. A number parts of what was once SunEdison have been picked up and reimagined in a number of new homes. Out of the ashes Genability picked up three new Switch customers; Flextronics, Crius Solar and DataReef, all of whom are pushing solar forward.

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Mostly Sunny Future

It seems the industry consensus is that costs will continue go down, panel technology will continue to improve, storage will come online, coal plants will continue to close and new energy will become the only new energy source added to the grid. And it will be turbulent but inevitable, because it will be the the most cost effective solution to the world’s energy needs. How cost effective is what we are here to help you with.

We are committed to exceeding the needs of our customers. We want the price of energy to help drive your sales and customer satisfaction in innovative new products and technologies. So if you are New Energy Company interested in Switch, please contact us, we would love to hear from you.

For more information on configuring actual solar savings, please check out our developer site.

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